Google Will Soon Let You Specify Which Stories You Want to See in Your Discover Feed.
I don’t know what the distant future of technology looks like, but I do know what awaits us in the near future: artificial intelligence. More specifically, AI that responds to natural language requests. This is already a reality for many platforms, apps, and services: instead of doing something yourself, you tell the AI what you want it to do, and it fulfills your request. Natural language commands are popping up everywhere , from programming platforms to playlist generators . Now, it seems, they’re coming to your news app, too.
The Google app’s Discovery feed will now feature commands that can be controlled using natural language.
On Friday, Google announced a number of changes to its Discovery app. Perhaps the most notable is the new ability to “customize” and “tailor” the Discovery feed to your liking—not by leaving reviews on specific articles or sources, but by simply telling Google which news you want to see and which you don’t.
Here’s how it works, according to Google: Once the feature is available in your Google app, you can tap any three-dot menu in your feed to tell Google how you’d like to customize your feed. A new window will then open labeled “What you want to see.” Here, you’ll find sample suggestions (“Show me content from…,” “I want videos about…,” etc.) and a text field to enter them. As an example, Google says you could enter a query like “show me kitchen remodeling tips and ideas.” Gemini will then show you a list of article types it thinks you’d be interested in (e.g., “Modern room layout and layout ideas,” “Budget-friendly options for updating cabinets and countertops,” etc.). If you’re happy with the results, you can tap “Refresh feed.”
If you’re not satisfied with Gemini’s initial interpretation of your instructions, you can refine them before updating your feed. You can submit another prompt (for example, “Could you focus on green and sustainable improvements?”) and see how Gemini responds. You can repeat this process until you’re satisfied with Gemini’s direction, then click “Refresh Feed” to see the results. (Of course, you can click the three-dot menu again to continue adjusting your settings.) Google says these updates will roll out “in the coming days.”
Other changes coming to the Google app.
In addition to this natural language processing feature, Google also announced two new changes to its app. First, Google is making it easier to customize the audio messages you receive in Google News on Android. You can now select specific topics you want to hear, including main topics and subtopics. For example, you can specify that you want to hear science and technology news, but only about neuroscience and space, not about the environment, gaming, or virtual reality. This opens up a wide range of content curation options.
Google is also announcing the introduction of a new “Preferred Sources” button for publishers. You may have seen the first version of this button in Lifehacker articles. While it’s unclear what’s new in the latest version, this button lets you tell Google you want to see more articles from a specific publisher on specific topics in the future. For example, if you add Lifehacker as a preferred source, you might see our articles on topics like AI, Apple, and security when they appear in your feed.